Before I switch on my Kindle and start the promised exploration of some of my ebooks, I have to mention the sad passing of yet another author. Not only did we lose Harper Lee yesterday, we also lost Umberto Eco, best known for his 1980 work of historical fiction, The Name of the Rose. Not a book I actually have, unlike To Kill a Mockingbird.

Anyway, in my previous blog, I said I was going to have a look at my ebooks and see if there were any of particular interest which I should get on with reading electronically. I had recently downloaded Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithian, but what else have I got on there? Part of me wishes I’d downloaded Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie onto my devices. I do love physical books, though, and it’s not as though I don’t have anything else to read, is it?!

* switches Kindle on… *

Got a fair bit of Dickens on here! 9 items! I have already read A Christmas Carol, but there are a fair few other novels on here, including, amongst others, Our Mutual Friend, A Tale of Two Cities,and David Copperfield.

Look Who’s Back, by Timur Vermes, is also on my Kindle, although I actually have the paperback of that novel, the one where Adolf Hitler finds himself alive and well in Berlin in 2011. I have quite a few on here which I also have in paperbacks. Makes sense, though – means I can read those books on my travels, even if I don’t take that physical copy of the book with me.

Actually, looking through my Kindle, there’s plenty of stuff which could do with archiving, stuff which probably no longer needs to be on my device. Ooh! Twisting My Melon, Shaun Ryder’s autobiography, is on here! That’s not getting archived. That’s staying on the Kindle, as is Adam Ant’s autobiography, Stand and Deliver. I’m going to see him in June when he comes to the Bridgewater Hall. To be fair, though, I think a few physical autobiographies need reading first, including Chapter and Verse by Bernard Sumner, Anger Is an Energy by John Lydon, and I Know This Much, by Gary Kemp. That one needs reading so I can give it back to my friend, Sarah!

Thing is, with my Kindle, I can’t remember when or why I downloaded several of these items! They must have sounded good at the time, but I haven’t a scooby what they’re about when I come to read the titles now! I’ve had my Kindle since the end of 2011, I think, so at the end of this year, it’ll be 5 years! Those of you who’ve followed my blogs for a long time will remember that I actually won the thing, but that there were problems with getting it to me. Finally, it arrived, and I started downloading ebooks on to it.

* Takes her Kindle out of aeroplane mode, thus WiFi is now on… *

Let’s see what’s being offered to me in the recommendations… sheet music for Fleetwood Mac. Hmm… Might look into that, albeit I might want a physical copy of that book rather than having it electronically, and I can already play the bass riff from The Chain, anyway! You probably know The Chain… used by the BBC as the theme for Formula 1 Grand Prix coverage…

Just sit back and enjoy… especially that bass part!

I’m probably being offered sheet music because I recently bought Best of Bowie. Amazon have recommended sheet music for Elton John to me, too, since I bought the Bowie book. Ooh, and my Kindle is also recommending me Don Quixote by Miguel de Cerventes… albeit in the original Spanish! Don Quijote de la Mancha. I do actually have the English version in paperback, I think I got it from the Mustard Tree charity shop where I used to volunteer, so it would have been all of 20p if that were the case. Cheapest books of any local charity shop. 20p for paperbacks 50p for hardbacks! Cheap as chips! The Spanish version is only 99p for my Kindle… I have done GCSE Spanish at college, and I have the English translation…perhaps I should give it a go…

Back in 2014, when I was volunteering, I noticed there was quite a gap between the cheap prices of books at the Mustard Tree, especially compared to those at the British Heart Foundation shop where I also helped out at the same time. I know these things have to be determined nationally in their case, but I really think they should consider drastically reducing the price of many of their books. They’d get a much quicker turnover if they did! Many of their paperbacks were £2 or more, which is pretty steep for a charity shop book, especially when you consider the competition from several other charity shops in the local area!

And they were rather fussy about what state the books were in! I thought that was a poor attitude from a charity shop! Especially as I don’t think potential buyers really care! If I go in charity shops, as I often do, I EXPECT things to be second-hand. Pre-loved, pre-owned… So, some books might be yellowing… So what?! If it was a book I really wanted to read, I would not give a shit if the pages were yellowing! I expect books to be brand new and in pristine condition if I am buying them from the likes of Waterstone’s or W H Smith’s, but I am realistic about the state of items in second-hand shops!

Anyway, I finished Fight Club last night, so I am down to two Handbag Books at the moment while deciding on a third. Perhaps I should restore The Guest Cat to the handbag, or I should choose something else given that I’ve already let the cat out of the bag, so to speak! I am almost two thirds of the way through An Abundance of Katherines, so more potential contenders for a place in my handbag are mounting up! It’s the second John Green book I’ve read, and I’m really enjoying it. I think some people might find Colin Singleton annoying, but I like him as a character. Probably because I’m quite nerdy myself! His friend, Hassan, also makes me laugh. One potential candidate for the handbag could be Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom. I’ve had that book quite a while, and it’s been hanging around Computer Corner, as has The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald. That’s a really slim one – would go very nicely in my handbag! Slim books go in my handbag, so that I can fit 2 or 3 in there at a time!

Before I finish this for tonight, let’s return to the late Umberto Eco, and his idea of the “unlibrary” – that is to say, one’s collection of unread books… Eco argued that these are actually more use to us than those we have read, which is a fair point. After all, however many books we have read in our own personal book collections, there are always plenty more we could read next! It also makes us bookworms feel much better about all the unread books we have, and our huge TBR piles!